And the news in in: Black Panther in MUN!!

So here's my take on what a few people have called lackluster: Just like the first Panther, his printed stats are either just below average to right at average. But played to his strengths, he is sufficiently above average to make him quite playable indeed.

As a 5 cost, dual affiliated to Avengers and Fantastic Four, Black Panther is only an 8/8 concealed character. He does allow you to replace 2 reservists when he enters play and distribute two +1/+1 counters amongst any characters you control as you see fit. Well that that's even better than the old Avengers 3 drop, since this can make your 4 drop as big as a 5 drop and leave Panther like a larger 4 drop. Not that you'd WANT to do that, but it IS an option.

I'm a much bigger fan of things like New and Improved, and if I k.o. my Marvel Knights concealed 1 drop Panther, I can recruit the 5 drop and give him the counters making him a 12/12 for 5. THAT is pretty awesome in my book.

And with his Storm to back him up at alternating drops, this takes me back to the Ultimate Alliance inspired Double Date team. LEap-frogging your drops and continuing to make the next drop +2+2 bigger than it's supposed to be seems REALLY good to me.

As a Reservist himself, Panther can protect himself from a multitude of effects by essentially hiding safely in your resource row until you need him.

While I'd love him to be Visible instead, I'd still rate him as a 9 out of 10. The only thing missing from him for my personal wants is to see him with an equipment theme sooner or later in a higher cost character.